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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The-Magic-Sword" data-source="post: 7277758" data-attributes="member: 6801252">Meh, it just seems like these historical discussions just go around in meaningless circles that have little to nothing to do with the original question. Full rewritings of weapon tables, the same tired circlejerks about rapiers, the same discussions about how the word longsword is effectively meaningless, about why katanas are actually exactly the same longswords even though that's hysterically inaccurate but f*ck weebs amirite, just getting caught up in so much minutae that it feels... meandering? and not entirely sincere, I think I may have just read these threads one too many times so at this point it just feels tired. 5e Dungeons and Dragons is hardly an accurate simulation of medieval warfare, nor is it particularly trying to be- and yet there's this sense that whenever it deviates, it's a shortcoming, and that it needs to be purified to some base european historical root, I'm catching this weird subtext of one true wayism where "oooh, i'll use a katana" is met with derision. To my mind there's no problem with the katana being reflavored as the longsword in and of itself, it is A longsword, just not a European one. That being said, I think that the longsword does come up short in that it isn't finesse- the kensai monk is my favorite subclass in the game, but I can certainly understand someone wanting a katana for use with any other class which the kensai obviously doesn't help much with. I also think that given the presence of the scimitar, and a few other weapons, and the mechanical room for a versatile finesse option that it would be a waste of an opportunity. 1d6 finesse versatile (2d4) does slightly lower average damage than the longsword (and less one handed damage than the rapier, preserving it's niche), can be used with dex, allows novel dex GWF builds without GWM therefore preserving the alpha-damage niche for strength, feels more inclusive toward other portions of the geeky community (because obviously, people have a lot of affections for katanas), and just overall seems to have a more positive impact than reflavoring the dnd longsword which might not actually meet the person's expectations for what a Katana should be like.</blockquote>

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